BEDMINSTER – A scaled-down plan for a controversial solar facility on Country Club Road is scheduled to be presented to the township’s land use board on Thursday evening, but opponents are urging a more through review before testimony can continue.

KDC Solar has reduced the size of the facility from 40,400 panels to 33,960 panels, according to a letter sent to the land use board by project engineer Robert Moschello.

Under KDC's plan, the power generated by the solar panels would be transmitted under Route 287 to the North American headquarters of Sanofi on Route 202-206 in Bridgewater.

KDC said the facility would supply 100 percent of Sanofi’s power for 20 years. The decrease in the number of panels proposed for the 132-acre Kirby farm is one of several changes the township-based firm has proposed after months of hearings that have drawn staunch opposition.

The changes are so significant that opponents of the project are asking the land use board to consider it as a new application.

“We are basically back to less than square one,” Richard Sasso, attorney for Steve Forbes, wrote the board, citing the lack of new engineering data.

“A completely different project has been submitted, thereby negating the prior completed testimonies of (KDC’s) witnesses,” he stated.

Sasso contends that the new plans should be reviewed by the township engineer.

“We have no idea what we are facing,” Sasso wrote, adding “we are being forced to chase a ghost.”

Michele Donato, attorney for Stop the Somerset Hills Power Plan, a citizens group opposed to the solar facility, is also contending that the application process should start over.

“The revised plans should not be considered until such time as the stormwater management component and other missing information is completely, thoroughly and correctly addressed,” Donato wrote the land use board.

In the revised plan, KDC has also reduced the height of the solar arrays from 8 feet to five feet. KDC is also proposing that less than 10,000 cubic yards of soil will be moved, a reduction from the original proposal of more than 40,000 cubic yards.

The revised plan calls for no solar panels on the southeastern part of the property and no landscaped berms along Country Club Road.

KDC will forgo pile-driven posts to mount the solar arrays and in stead use a ballast foundation which will will not penetrate the soil.

KDC has also agreed to restore the farmhouse on the property and to post a $750,000 bond to restore the site once the solar panels are removed.

The land use board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the municipal building on Old Somerville Road.